van ackeren



April 3. 1928. 1,664,649

J. VAN ACKEREN COKING RETORT OVEN Original Filed Sept. 6, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet l April 3, 192s. 1,664,649

J. VAN ACKEREN COKING RETORT OVEN @d y@ e. 1921 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oririnal April 3, 1928.

1,664,649 .1. VAN ACKEREN CKING RETORT OVEN Filed Sept. 6. 1921 SECT/0N April 3. 192s. 1,664,649

J. VAN ACKEREN COKING RETORT OVEN Orilnal Filed Sept. 6. 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 [mi w/Uf Patented Apr. 3, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH VAN CKEREN, 0F PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE XOPPERS COMPANY, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF- PEN NSYLVAN'IA.

COKING RETORT OVEN.

Application lediseptember 6, 1921, Seria,No. 498,796. Renewed January 29, 1926.

This invention comprehends improvements of general utility in the coke oven art; and. also comprehends certain improvements especially applicable to coking retort ovens of the well-known cross-regenerative type, exemplified in the patent to `H. Koppers,818,033, dated April 17, 1906, and in the patent to J oeph Becker, 1,374,546, dated April 12, 1921.

The invention has for objects the provision of a coking retort oven having, as important characteristics: a flue construction that contemplates the entire elimination of the usual horizontal or bus ilues that are located at the top of the vertical flame ilues and connect a plurality of said vertical flucs with each other; and, as a feature that may be secured by the above structural improvements, `a novel system of control of the flow throughthe flame ilues of the heating walls, permitting flow. in the same direction through all of the tlame lues of alternate heating walls, with the result that all the flame tlues of alternate heating walls are either simultaneously burnin, or simultaneously operating as outflow olues, while the flues ot' the intermediate heating walls are operating concurrently for flow in the opposite direction to that. of the alternate heat- :io ing walls.

The above stated elimination of the horizontal lues is an important advantage for the reason ,that it enables a, considerable thickening and strengthening of the walls ot' the oven structure in the region located at the upper xtremity of the vertical flame fines. Moreover, the improved construction of the invention permits an increase of the height of the flame Haes, with a correspond- 40 ing increase in the height of the coking chambers, so that the latter may be made narrower in Width, a development greatly facilitating the coking of high volatile coals, and yet having adequate provision for takying care of the increased volume ofcombustion products, without making it necessary to provide Hue spaces of sizes inconsistent with adequate strength of the Wall construction.- 'lhe flue construct-ion of the vinvention is furthermore of great importance in oven batteries fired with extraneously derived gas, such as producer gas, since the employment of such gas results in an increased volume of combustion products and adequate flue spaces must be provided to collect and feed to the down-flow operating iues this increased volume of combustion products. By the invention, the flue construction may be adequately accommodated to such increased volume of combustion products, without introducing elements of weakness into the wall structure.

In addition to the general objects recited above, the invention has for further objects such other improvements and advantages in construction and operation as are found to obtain in the structures and devices hereinafter described or claimed.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and showing, for purposes of exempliication, a preferred form and manner in which the invention muy be embodied and practiced, but without limiting the claimed invention to such illustrative instance or instances:

Figure 1 is a crossWise vertical section through a coke oven battery embodying features above specified and equipped with the improvementsot the invention, the view be` ing taken longitudinally through a. coking chamber and a pair of regenerators in a plane indicated by the line D-I) of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a composite vertical sectional elevation taken longitudinally of the coke oven battery, in planes indicated by the lines A-A, B---B and C-C of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 a vertical section taken crosswiso ot the battery and longitudinallj,` of a heating wall in a plane indicated by the line vlbf-l of Fig. 2; und

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, horizontal section a heating wall taken in a plane indicated t the line G-G of Fig. 2.

The same cl'iaracters of reference designate the same parts in each of the several views of the drawings.

In the en'ibodiment illustrated in the drawing-, the invention is incorporated in a. combination coke oven battery, i. e., a battczv having provision for being operated either with producer as the fuel or with coke oven gas burned in an atmosphere of ordi nary preheated air, such as is utilized in ordinary coke ovens, or with coke oven gas burned in an atmosphere containin both air and a neutral gaseous diluent Whic i is introduced into the flame tlues separately from the air. A combination coke oven battery having such features is described and claimed in the co-pending application of Joseph Becker for Letters Patent of the United States for coking retort oven, tiled April 23, 1920, Serial No. 376.126.

For convenience, the presentI description will be confined to the present illustrative embodiment of the invention in such a conibination oven battery; the novel features, and improvements of the invention are, however, capable of other applications, such for example, to ordinary so-called coke ovens employing coke oven gas as the. fuel, or to ordinary so-called gas ovens employing an extraneously derived gas, such as pro ducer gas, as the fuel; hence, the scope of the invention is not conine'd to the specific use and specific embodiment herein described as an illustrative example.

Referring. to the drawings: There are illustrated views of a coke oven battery or plant of the by-product type having features above specified; said oven battery embodies in its construction a plurality of crosswise elongatedA heating Walls 11, 11, land a plurality of intermediate crosswise elongated vertical coking chambers 12, 12, the heating walls 11 forming the side walls of the respective coking chambers 12, as shown in Fig. 2. The heating walls 11 are directly supported by the heavy supporting or pillar walls 13, 13 which extendpcrosswise of the battery and are located, as shown in Fig. 2, beneath the respective heating Walls 11, 11. These pillar Walls, together with other Walls hereinafter described, collectively form the main support for the entire superstructure of the oven battery and are themselves supported upon a fiat mat or platform which constitutes the subfoundati-on on which the entire battery rests. The coal to be 'coked is charged into the several coking chambers or ovens through charging holes 14, located in the top 15 of the battery and positioned `di rectly aliox'e the ovens or chambers 12, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. These charging holes 14 are equipped with tbe usual rcmovable covers, which are removed during charging ot the individual ovens or coking chambers and are placed in position to close the tops of such coking chambers` during thc entire coking or distilling;r operation. The gases of distillation pass from the tops of the several coking chambers through gas outlets 16 and thence through ascension pipes (not shown) into the usual gas colleetinfgr main which carries the distillation products to the by-product recovery apparatus.

Heat for coking the several charges of coal in the several ovens or chambers 12 is derived from the heating Walls 11. which. as'

above mentioned, extend crosswise of'the battery at the side? of the coking chambers. Each heating wal 11 is constituted of a plurality of flame or combustion fines 17. The flame flues of each heating wall are, in accordance with the invention` operatively disposedinto a single series, that is to say, all ot the flues of each heating wall operate concurrently as lip-How or down-flow fines, as will be hereinafter more fully explained. With regard to the flow through the lines, .the heating walls are disposed into two groups L and M, the heating Walls of the group L alternating with those of the group M. lVhen the flame fines of the group of alternate heating walls L are burning, that is to say operating for up-tlow, the flame fines of the intermediate heating walls of the group M are operating for down-ilow, to permit exhaust of the waste gases. lVith this system. of flow, when the flame flues Von one side of a coking chamber are burning, the flame tlues on the opposite side of the same coking chamber are o erating for dovvndiow, the saine system ot) How taking place uniformly throughout the battery. Consequently, heating is maintained c0ntinuously from end to end on one side of a charge of coal in each coking chamber, the heat being applied to the full length of one side of such charge during an entire operating period. and then, after reversal being applied to the full length of the opposite side of the charge until a subsequent reversal is eitected.

The crosswise regenerators 18 of the battery are located at a lower level than the aforesaid heating walls 11 and coking chambers 12 and, in the present instance extend in parallelism between the pillar walls 13, and the other heavy supporting Walls hereinafter described. Located in the middle, lengthwise, vertical plane of the battery is a vertical partition 19, as shown iu Fig. l, which partition extends all the Way up from the mat of the battery to the bottom of the overlying coking chamber and from one to the other of the pillar walls 13 and the other walls which are between the pillar walls. The rcgenerators, which are respectively located on opposite sides of the battery extendi inwardly to said partition 19 and are separated thereby, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. This arrangement permits control from opposite sides of the battery of the flow through the regenerators, thereby assisting the novel flue arrangement in promoting uniformity of distribution.

Each regenerator 18 is a chamber containing open brick Work, commonly called checker work. and indicated at 2() with a distributing sole channel 21 underneath such checker work, the channels forming the soles of such chambers and opening up into the checker work. As shown, a heavy vertical gas-tight supporting wall 22 extends directly beneath each coking chamber in5 parallelism between each two adjacent pillar Walls 13,'

Ilu

several flame flues on the opposite sides of the central partition 19, For this purpose the channel 31 communicates with the individual flues 17 on one side of the said partition 19 by means o f ducts 33 that lead from Such channel 31 individually into the bottoms of individual flues; the channel 32 which supplies the several ilues which are located on the other side of the before-mentioned partition 19 communicates with said flues by means of similarl connecting ducts 13. lVithin the several ucts are disposed ythe usual nozzles 34. Y

l The supply of coke oven gas to the respective channels 31 and 32 is derived from the coke oven gas mains of the usual type and respectively located n\the opposite sides of the bat-teryiand extending longitudinally 'therealong Suitable means is provided for admitting or cuttingr ofl' the supply, of gas with respect to each pair of channels 31 and 32, it being understood that the gas supply is either concurrently maintained in or concurrently shut oil' from both channels of a pair. For operating Vth'e battery alternatively with the use of a special generator gas, such as producer gas, as the fuel, one regenerator of each intlow operating pair, such as the regenerators P of the pairs L may be optionally connected with a producer gas main by mechanism such as is disclosed in the before-mentionedapplication of Joseph Becker, Serial No. 376,126, so that producer gas may 'be directed into such of the regenerators P as are operating for inflow, conveyed through these regenerators into burning flame flues 17. Y

The operation of the battery when, employing a special generator gas, such as producer gas, as the fuel, is as follows: The supply of coke oven gas to the coke oven gas main and to all of the coke oven gas channels 31, 32, is eut off. A supply of producer gas is permitted to flow into one regenerator P ot 'eat-h of the in-flow operating pairs, such as the'pairs L. Passing through said regenerators, the producer gas is preheated before being delivered into the burning flame fines. During the in-ilow of producer gas into such rcgenerators P, air flows into the other regenerators A of said in-flow operating pairs L and passing through said regcnerators is preheated prior to its delivery into the burning flame flues, such as the flame fluesL of alternate heating walls` In the flame flues of the intermediate heating walls M and in the intermediate pairs of rcgenerators M', down-flow is maintained, said regenerators M operating as waste gas regenerators IV. The flame lues of the walls M receive the waste gases from the before-mentioned channels 27 and cross ducts 28. On reversal of the flow, the inflow operating regenerators and flues become out-flow operating regenerators and flues and concurrently the out-flow operating regenerators.' and flues become ill-flow operating regenerators and tlues.

In operatin(r the battery with coke oven gas in the ordinary imanner, the supply of producer gas to alternate regenerators l is cut oil' and air is permitted to flow into such regenerators in place of the producer gas. During coke oven gas operation a supply of coke oven gas is maintained in the channels 31 and 32 which feed the up-burning flues. The reversing mechanism-is operated at each reversal to place each of the in-flow operating regenerators in communication with the outer air and concurrently all of the out-flow operating regenerators lV in communication with the exhaust.

A further mode of operation is with coke oven gas as the fuel combined with a supply of a neutral gaseous diluent to the up-burning flues. In so operating the battery, the

be delivered thereby to the up-burning flames flues. The admission into each of the up-s burning Ilues of a supply of neutral gaseous diluent, such as waste gas, is effective to lengthen greatly the llames within' such flues and to prevent the localization of the hottest flame temperature in the extreme lower portion of the flues.

The invention, as hereinabove set forth, is embodied in a particular form of construction, but may be variously embodied within the scope of the claims hereinafter made.

I claim: h .f

1. In a coking retort oven, in 'combination: a plurality of cokihng chambers; heating walls contiguous to such coking chambers and respectively comprising vertical combustion ilues; vertical out-flow channels communicably connected with a pair of combustion flues; duct means extended beneath the coking chambers, said duct means communicably connecting transversely of the in tervening cokn chambers the vertical outflow channels o alternate heating walls respectively with the corresponding vertical out-flow channels of intermediate heating walls; and crosswise regenerators parallel with the coking chambers and the heating Walls, such regenerators being disposed into iti-flow and out-flow operating pairs, both regenerators of each pair corresponding to and being communicably connected with com- 'bustion flues of only a single heating wall;

connnunicably connected with said combustion fines; duct means extended beneath the coking chambers, said duct means communicably connecting transversely of the 'intervening coking chamber the vertical out-flow channels of one heating wall respectively with the corresponding vertical outflow channels of an adjacent heating wall; and

. crosswise regenerators parallel with the coking chambers and the heating walls, such regcnerators being disposed into iii-flow and out-flow operating pairs, both regenerators of each pair corresponding to and being communicably connected with combustion ucs of only a single heating wall; substantially as specified.

3. In a cokng retort oven, in combination: a plurality of coking chambers, lued heating walls contiguous to such coking chambers; duct means extended beneath the coking chambers and communicably connecting transversely of the intervening coking chambers the flues of the alternate heating walls respectively with the fines of the ntermediate heating walls; and crosswlse regenerators parallel with the coking chambers and the heating walls, such regenerators being disposed into ,in-How and out-flow operating pairs, both regenerators of each palrcorresponding to and bein communicably connected with the fines o only a single heating wall; substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I hereunto alix my signature this 27th day 0f August, 1921.

JOSEPH VAN AQKEREN. 

